


Designated Driver

by TurtleOfTheMango



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alcohol, Drinking, Drunken Confessions, F/M, Fluff, Hahaha I don't know how to tag, Keith (Voltron) is a Mess, M/M, Oblivious Lance (Voltron), but what's new, mostly klance but side shalura and shunk, they're all huge idiots
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-01-28
Updated: 2018-01-28
Packaged: 2019-03-10 09:26:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,583
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13499162
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TurtleOfTheMango/pseuds/TurtleOfTheMango
Summary: “Heeeey baby.” Lance almost jumped out of his stool when he heard the deep slurred voice from behind him and he nearly spat out his orange juice when two heavy arms wrapped around his shoulders.“¡Qué mierda! Keith, what are you doing?” Lance almost shouted, smelling the alcohol in Keith’s breath as he turned to face the clearly wasted boy.“Hopefully you later tonight,” Keith said with a lopsided smirk as Lance’s face flushed red.Or the one where Keith is drunk, Lance is flustered, and everyone except Lance thinks it's hilarious.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Woot wooot!!! I'm really excited to share this with you (yes you, I see you over there) and I've had this idea in my head for a while now, it's great to be able to put it out there, into the intrawebs for people to see and read!!! (Gah, I ramble alot wow)  
> But anyways, I really do hope you enjoy reading this fic, and constructive criticism is always appreciated!
> 
> Enjoy <3
> 
>  
> 
> ALSO PLEASE DRINK RESPONSIBLY, I DO NOT CONDONE IRRESPONSIBLE DRINKING, UNDERAGE OR LEGAL.

Keith looked down and frowned at his watch; Lance was late. Again. He let out a tired sigh and scrolled through his phone for what seemed like the millionth time.

After about 5 minutes, he stood up, ready to go to Lance’s apartment and drag his sorry ass out when his phone started buzzing in his pocket. Seeing Hunk’s caller ID light up on the screen, Keith set down his keys and answered the phone.

“Hey, what’s up?”

“Keith? Hey! I just wanted to say happy birthday, and sorry that I couldn’t make it today.”

“No no, don’t worry about it, it’s really not a big de-”

“Oh, and I sent a present, it should probably come one or two days from now, but I wanted to make sure you knew. It has ‘Keith’s Present’ in big, red letters on the front, so you can’t miss it!”

Keith couldn’t help but smile at the fact that his best friend had put so much thought into his birthday, even though he wasn’t even in the same country as him.

“Thanks Hunk, that really means a lot.”

“No problem, so, how have things been going with Lance?”

Cheeks instantly turning red at the mention of that name, Keith complained into the phone, “Ughhhh Hunk, I don’t even know where to start, he’s just been so sweet to me but also so oblivious. He’s all flirty one minute and then the next he’s just the most annoying little shit I’ve ever met and I just hate his cute adorable fucking face so much.”

“Wow, someone’s smitten…” Hunk’s smile could be heard in his voice.

“No, I am not.” Keith quickly snapped back. “Anyways, I have to go get him before we get late.”

“Oh, and Keith?”

“Yuh?”

“Don’t drink too much ok?”

“Don’t worry, I won’t.”

 

-=+=-

 

Lance had absolutely no idea what he was doing. It wasn’t like he had never wrapped a present for someone. Well, actually, it was exactly like that. He always reasoned that the gift was more important than its packaging, but there he was, sitting in the middle of a pile of crumpled wrapping paper and tape with a Wiki-how page pulled up on his laptop and an unwrapped cardboard box in his lap.

Shaking his head, he traced each side of the box onto the paper and cut out the pieces, taping them down to their respective sides. After he decided that the finished product didn’t look as bad as he expected it to, he stood up, brushing the stray pieces of paper off his pants and looked up at the clock.  
Oh shit.

Darting around the room, Lance grabbed his keys and phone, jumped over a pile of dirty clothes, hastily pulled on a jacket that was laying on a chair and yanked the door open.

It took him a few times to get the door to lock, but when he finally did, he sprinted down the hallway, almost bumped into his neighbor, throwing a rushed apology behind his shoulder as he turned the corner. Lance’s face lit up as he saw Keith walking towards his apartment and without a second thought, he grabbed Keith’s wrist and, still running, dragged him towards the elevator with a mischievous laugh.

“Lance!” Keith cried out, the shock in his voice clear.

“C’mon Keith, we’re going to be late!” Lance yelled with a mischievous grin on his face.

“Jesus fucki-” Keith was cut off as Lance pushed him into the elevator just as the doors were closing.

Leaning against the wall, Lance caught his breath and smirked, cocking an eyebrow up, “Relax, mullet, we were getting late so I speed things up a bit.”

Covering his face with his hands, Keith let out an over exaggerated groan and hoped Lance wouldn’t notice his sliver of a smile.

As the elevator doors opened at the first floor, the cool October air greeted them as they walked through the red and orange trees, pointing out the insane Halloween decorations to each other.


	2. Orange-Grapefruit Eclipse

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lance is thirsty, so he gets a drink. (but he's still thirsty)

When they got to the bar, Lance immediately felt out of place. The stinging smell of vodka shots and fancy cocktails was overwhelming and the blaring pop music was making his head throb. He usually loved this joint and its fast paced environment, but today was one of the few days that he wasn’t there to get blackout drunk on cheap liquor and have Keith drag his wasted self back to their apartment complex. Today, Lance would have to stay sober and be the designated driver-not-driver to guide Keith home when he inevitably got drunk.

But he could suck it up for tonight, because after all, Shiro had flown in all the way from Boston just for this and Pidge was finally finished working on another one of her projects, which always took her months to finish.

“Keith, Lance, over here!”

 _Speak of the devil._ Lance thought as he and Keith strolled over to Pidge, who was frantically waving at them.

“Thank god you two are finally here, Shiro wouldn’t let me order any shots until you came. Something about how I was going to ‘drink everything’ and ‘start ranting about how aliens are real and there’s proof’” her ironic tone accentuated by the way she dramatically used air quotes.

“Anyways, I’m getting the usual for Keith, you want something Lance?”

“Nah, I’m fine. I have to take the birthday boy home tonight.” Lance smirked as he nudged Keith with his elbow.

“I can drive you two home, I’m taking Pidge home anyways.” Shiro spoke up, walking up to the trio and putting his hand on Pidge’s shoulder.

“It’s only a few blocks away from this place, I’ll be fine.” He pauses before lifting an eyebrow and looking up at Shiro.

“Unless you wanna take me home for other reasons.” His suggestive eyebrow wiggling earned him an exasperated sigh from Shiro and a groan from Keith.

“I’m getting the drinks.” Pidge said as she turned on her heel and left the others to pester Lance about his terrible pick-up lines.

 

-=+=-

 

Five minutes later, Keith and Shiro were talking about some workout routine that they had made, Pidge was chatting with Allura who had randomly appeared out of the middle of nowhere, and Lance was bored out of his mind.

The buzz of the bar and the thick smell of alcohol was almost suffocating, and he felt like he really wanted a drink.

No, he _needed_ a drink.

So, Lance excused himself from the conversations that he wasn’t part of anyways and walked over to the bar counter at the side of the building. Sitting on one of the black barstools, he sighed loudly, earning a glance from the bartender.

“Why Lance, I wasn’t expecting to see you moping around here. What’s got you down in the dumps?”

Lance sat up in his stool so fast that he almost fell off the stool and barely managed to grab onto the counter to stop his fall off the stool.

“Coran? You’re the bartender here?”

“Yup, have been for Deca-Phoebs now. I’m surprised you didn’t see me before.” Coran was in the stereotypical bartending position, with a cocktail shaker in his hand and a rag on his shoulder. “Did you want anything?”

Groaning again, Lance leaned back on the barstool while gripping the counter, despite his inability to balance before.  
“Probably just some juice. I’m Keith’s designated driver tonight.”

“Alrighty then, one Orange-Grapefruit Eclipse coming right up” And with a flourish, Coran opened up a fresh shaker and poured in a red and orange drink, then closing the shaker and tossing it up in the air. Quickly grabbing a tall orange glass, he dropped in some ice-cubes and caught the shaker with perfect accuracy. He poured out the orange drink and added a fresh lemongrass garnish and pushed it over to Lance, whos jaw had dropped somewhere in the beginning of the performance.

After giving the man a small round of applause (to which Coran humbly bowed), Lance took a sip of his Eclipse and was pleasantly surprised by the taste.

It seemed to be mostly orange juice, but there was definitely more of a kick in there. It was salty and a bit sour, but in more of a lemon than orange way, and the usual bitterness of grapefruit was completely absent.

He instantly felt a lot better and when Coran had to go, he took up a conversation with one of the other bartenders about their skin care routines.

A few minutes and another Orange-Grapefruit Eclipse later, Lance was scrolling through his photo library, trying to find old pictures to embarrass Keith with when they got back home. His thumb was lazily flicking through the photos and he was calm enough to let his mind wander. He thought about how weird Keith looked with his hair tucked out of his face with a hairband, and how uncomfortable he looked with a green clay facemask on. He thought about how Keith always wore red, even though his favorite color was black, and how he always wore his fingerless gloves, even when exercising. Letting his mind linger on the raven haired boy even longer, Lance thought about the way Keith’s dark eyes sparkled when he laughed, and how his muscles rippled under his shirt when he was running.

He thought about how his muscles would look witho-

“Nonono, literally _anything_ but that.” Lance silently chastised himself before sighing, propping his elbows up on the counter and resting his chin in his palms. He felt a small wave of remorse wash over him as he sipped his drink in his awkward position. Keith was his friend, and the last thing he wanted was to mess up their friendship. He’d been in this situation before, and it had ended terribly, so why did he think it would work out this time? He’d rather be safe than sorry.

Shaking those thoughts out of his head, Lance took a big sip of the drink and was about to swallow it when he heard the dull clack of dress shoes coming towards him.

 

“Heeeey baby.” Lance almost jumped out of his stool when he heard the deep slurred voice from behind him and he nearly spat out his orange juice when two heavy arms wrapped around his shoulders.

“¡Qué mierda! Keith, what are you doing?” Lance almost shouted, smelling the alcohol in Keith’s breath as he turned to face the clearly wasted boy.

“Hopefully you later tonight,” Keith said with a lopsided smirk as Lance’s face flushed red.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
> 
> Hahah sooo this chapter was a bit rushed buuuut it's bc the next chapters are gonna be super fun!!!  
> The next chapters are probably going to be uploaded pretty sporadically, but I'll do my best to upload whenever possible!
> 
> Again, please drink legally and responsibly


	3. A Piggy-back ride

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lance is still blushing and Keith is afraid of the dark

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> yyeeet let’s get this party started!
> 
> oml its been so so SO long and I left y’all on SUCH a cliffhanger (sry about that)
> 
> I didn’t even know if i wanted to finish this bc I had like no plans for it (and what would I know abt being drunk, im a minor lol)
> 
> Buttt I reallly wanna finish it, both for myself and for all of y’all
> 
> so, without further ado, enjoy!

“Heeeey baby.” Lance almost jumped out of his stool when he heard the deep slurred voice from behind him and he nearly spat out his orange juice when two heavy arms wrapped around his shoulders.

“¡Qué mierda! Keith, what are you doing?” Lance almost shouted, smelling the alcohol in Keith’s breath as he turned to face the clearly wasted boy.

“Hopefully you later tonight,” Keith said with a lopsided smirk as Lance’s face flushed red.

 

-some time earlier-

“SHOTS SHOTS SHOTS!”

“PIDGE STOP YOU’RE TOO SMALL YOU CAN’T DRINK THAT MUCH”

“COME ON SKUNK HAIR, LET ME LIFE MY LIVE, I’M ON TOP O---blehhh”

“Oh god, Allura, can you take her to the bathroom?”

“Already on it.”

Sighing, Shiro let his head fall onto the table. “Thank goodness you can hold your liquor, right Keith?  
… Keith?  
Oh no.”

 

-=+=-

“No no no no no, you can NOT be drunk right now.” Lance said, snapping at Keith, with a mixture of shock and confusion on his face. “I’m the one who has to take you home!”

Keith face was also flushed, but it was more of a soft, drunken blush that spread across his pale face from ear to ear as compared to Lance’s beet red blush of embarrassment.

“But it makes my tummy feel warm and funny, and it’s really really funnn.”

Lance noticed that the other boy’s voice modulated a lot more when he was drunk, a fact that he would have found immensely endeering if he wasn’t confused and embarrassed out of his mind right now.

“Alrighty, let’s get you out of here” said Lance before standing up and pulling Keith’s clinging arms off of his shoulders, much the dismay of Keith. “Does Shiro know where you are?”

He took a long sip of his orange drink as the other boy explained, “well, I was kinda bored so I wanted to find you.” Lance’s heart almost skipped a bit when Keith suddenly looked up from the floor with a mischievous grin. “You wanna have some fun?”

Lance could feel his cheeks burning red and his mouth dry up.

Sighing, Lance closed his eyes and shook his head. “Keith, you’re hella drunk, let’s go home.”

“But I wanna play, Lancie Lance.” Keith whined, pulling on the taller’s sleeves with a baby-like pout on his face.

“Ok sure, let’s go outside, then we can play”

“Alrighty!”

Lance started walking towards the front of the building and was reaching for his phone to text Shiro when he noticed a distinct lack of someone following him.

“Keith, you coming or not?” Lance looked over his shoulder to see an awkward Keith still standing where he was a few moments ago.

“I..I’m kinda scared of going outside, it’s really dark.” Keith stammered, playing with the hem of his sleeve.

Turning his back to Keith, Lance bent his back and held his arms out behind him, “Mkay, let’s go. Get on my back.”

“A piggy-back ride? Really? Aww thanks, you’re so sweeet.” His face lit up as he jumped onto Lance’s back, making him grunt.

“Onwards stead!”

“Yeah yeah.”

 

-=+=-

There was a cool breeze blowing through the trees, making the orange, autumn leaves flutter around the two boys. It seemed pretty serene until one of the leaves flew into Lance’s mouth when he was yawning and he almost dropped Keith while trying to spit it out.

Speaking of Keith, he had fallen asleep on Lance’s back soon after leaving the bar. Lance would’ve complained about the dead weight on his back and made Keith wake up and get off, but he weighed the options and decided that having Keith quiet was better than him being a loud, drunken mess and potentially waking up the whole neighborhood.

So, they walked through the night, with flickering street lamps illuminating sections of the sidewalk and distant thunderclouds rummeling in warning.

“Lance?” Keith let out a sleepy mummer.

“Yeah?” Lance prayed that he was awake enough to walk by himself.

“Your hair is really soft.”

The hair on the back of Lance’s neck stood up for a second time that night as Keith started playing with the small curls at the nape of his neck.

“U...umm th..thanks?” Lance stammered in response, unaware of his blush.

“And you smell really good” Keith took in a deep breath and exhaled, warm and wet, against Lance’s ear, making his eyes go wide.

“And I really really like you.”

Lance’s breath hitched and he stopped walking. The two were enveloped in darkness, with only the moonlight illuminating them on the sidewalk. Lance looked at his feet and smiled wide, matching the giddy feeling in his chest.

“K...keith?”

“hmm” Keith only murmured in response, already falling back asleep.

“I like you too.”

Lance was both disappointed and relieved to hear Keith’s soft snoring again, and he started walking back towards their apartment again, with the crisp autumn breeze cooling his flushed cheeks.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> yooo, those last 2 seasons were craaazy, am I right? (ples don’t answer that, I haven’t watched them yet no spoilers :P)
> 
> also, if you were waiting for this since the last update, I’m both super sorry and very welcome to have updated it (finally)
> 
> and I kno how whack the timeline is but pay no attention to it heh...

**Author's Note:**

> Phew! That was pretty long (lol not at all). Questions and stuff like that are always welcome, and thanks for reading!
> 
> Again please drink responsibly.


End file.
